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The Obama administration, which has boasted about its efforts to make government more transparent, is rolling back rules requiring labor unions and their leaders to report information about their finances and compensation. The Labor Department noted in a recent disclosure that "it would not be a good use of resources" to bring enforcement actions against union officials who do not comply with conflict of interest reporting rules passed in 2007. Instead, union officials will now be allowed to file older, less detailed conflict reports.

Lawrence Summers, a top economic adviser to President Barack Obama, pulled in more than $2.7 million in speaking fees paid by firms at the heart of the financial crisis, including Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Merrill Lynch, Bank of America Corp. and the now-defunct Lehman Brothers. He pulled in another $5.2 million from D.E. Shaw, a hedge fund for which he served as managing director from October 2006 until joining the administration.

Sorry for the vanity- I am just monitoring the news Channels here in India and this is on all of them - The Sri Lankan Cricket team, playing a test series against Pakistan has just been attacked by terrorists with assault weapons and grenades. At least 6 of their players have been injured in the chest and leg, 5 guards killed in the attack near the Qaddafi stadium. The Sri lamkan team replaced India who refused to tour after the Mumbai carnage.

(IsraelNN.com) United States President-elect Barack Obama said he will appoint a team immediately after his inauguration on Tuesday to address on "Day One" the crisis in Gaza, as well as other troubles across the Middle East. "We've got a regional set of problems," Obama said in an interview with USA Today, noting the challenges in Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan in addition to the war over the Land of Israel. "They're not going to be solved in isolation. And we've got to be active in all these areas in order for us to be successful in any of these areas." According...

WASHINGTON (AFP) – US president-elect Barack Obama on Saturday signaled climate change and genetic research will be among his top priorities when he takes office as he named four key members of his administration. "It's time we once again put science at the top of our agenda and worked to restore America's place as the world leader in science and technology," said Obama in a weekly radio address. Leading his list of nominees is John Holdren, who would become director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and co-chairman of the president's Council of Advisors on Science...

With nearly two years of campaigning for the White House now behind him, President-elect Barack Obama has only 11 weeks to build an administration that will be ready to govern when he is sworn in on January 20. It's an arduous task that will define Obama's presidency, and it will require a smooth transition with the Bush administration. Obama took his first step in building his team on Wednesday when he offered Illinois Rep. Rahm Emanuel the job of White House chief of staff. Emanuel would not tell FOX News if he had been offered the job but said if...

It’s been the most frequently asked question I’ve gotten from National Review Online readers and conservatives over e-mail and in person since the market chaos and subsequent bailout circus began. My answer these last few months has always been: Turn on MSNBC. Turn on FOX. Google a conservative candidate for Congress. Romney is liable to turn up. And yet, a ridiculous item on the Internet yesterday suggested that he’s been in hiding, keeping a “low profile nationally” and unwilling to help out Republicans who aren’t a sure thing. There are problems with that contention: Why do I keep seeing the...

CAMP TAJI, Iraq, Sept. 23, 2008 – During a World War II battle in Holtzwihr, France, a wounded U.S. soldier climbed into a burning tank, took a spot behind a .50-caliber machine gun and fired until the enemy was vanquished. Army Sgt. 1st Class Ernest Oberst watches the soldiers in his platoon conduct vehicle inspections northwest of Baghdad. U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. J.B. Jaso III, Multinational Division Baghdad  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. At the age of 19, Audie Murphy was awarded the Medal of Honor, and to this day, he inspires military leaders and soldiers...

The real reason why an Obama-Biden ticket is a vulnerable one is that it plays into one of the few strengths that Republicans and John McCain have in the 2008 election. A weak economy, a surge in Democratic voter registration, an unpopular Republican president, a sour public mood, a desire for political change -- all those favor Mr. Obama and Democrats. But what Mr. Obama has done is create an all-liberal ticket -- a very, very liberal one, at that -- in a nation whose electorate is still center-right. The political mood may be a bit more centrist today than...

FORWARD OPERATING BASE KALSU, Iraq, Aug. 5, 2008 – Two years after the Army raised the maximum age for enlistees, it is not uncommon to find soldiers over the age of 40 in the junior enlisted ranks. Army Spc. Gina Keller shares a meal with her husband, Army Sgt. Kevin Keller, at the Forward Operating Base Kalsu dining facility in Iraq. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. David Turner, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Some served in their younger years; others just always wanted to serve. Still others followed in their children’s...

LONG POND, Pa., June 12, 2008 – Hours before his seventh-place start and fourth-place finish in NASCAR's Sprint Cup Pocono 500 at Pocono Raceway here June 9, Dale Earnhardt Jr. looked fresh and rested as he visited National Guard members at an infield area. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (right) talks with members of the Pennsylvania Army National Guard on June 9, 2008, at Pocono Raceway, Pa., before driving the No. 88 National Guard car in NASCAR's Sprint Cup Pocono 500. Braving near triple-digit temperatures, it was the hottest race of the season for Earnhardt and the No. 88 Guard car...

Mars Lander Team Prepares for "Seven Minutes of Terror"Victoria Jaggard National Geographic NewsMay 13, 2008 After years of planning followed by a ten-month journey, the Mars Phoenix Lander is slated to touch down on the red planet's north pole on May 25. If successful, the probe will be the first lander to reach a Martian pole and the first to actually touch the planet's water ice. What's more, it could settle the debate over whether Mars was once a habitable world. Now, as Phoenix closes in on the last 12 million miles (19 million kilometers) of its journey, NASA scientists...

BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan, Nov. 16, 2007 – Members of the Bagram Provincial Reconstruction Team visited Salang district Nov. 12 to assess construction of the area’s latest district center. Army Sgt. 1st Class James Newton, Bagram Provincial Reconstruction Team civil affairs specialist, hands out teacher kits to a Salang high school teacher Nov. 12, 2007. Photo by Senior Airman Dilia DeGrego, USAF  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Bagram PRT engineers visited the site of the district center and new Afghan National Police headquarters, located near Salang high school, to determine the current dimensions of the cleared site. Upon...

and your wisdom. You know how businesses work. You know what your family needs,” the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, embedded Provincial Reconstruction Team (ePRT) leader told the sheiks of the Hawr Rajab City Council. “We need you to teach us ways to do it so we can help.” John Smith, the ePRT leader, and Coalition forces recently met with the sheiks in Hawr Rajab to discuss the changes taking place there. Such cooperation is vital, Smith said, because success depends on all parties banding together and sharing knowledge. Working together with the council, Smith and Ferrell said...

BAGHDAD — Plans to open the first police station in Arab Jabour commenced with two recent meetings held at the Mahmudiyah Iraqi Police Headquarters and Forward Operating Base Falcon. Though the police station is still months from establishment, the first steps were taken in Mahmudiyah, when Soldiers of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, from Fort Stewart, Ga., and the 153rd Military Police Company, from Delaware City, Del., met with Mahmudiyah’s District Iraqi Police Commander, Brig. Gen. Abbed. Capt. Lauren Glaze, provost marshal, 2nd BCT, 3rd Inf. Div., and 1st Lt. Daniel A. Deflaviis, platoon leader for 3rd...

Team IDs ancient cargo from DNA For the first time, researchers have identified DNA from inside ceramic containers in an ancient shipwreck on the seafloor, making it possible to determine what the ship's cargo was even though there was no visible trace of it. The findings, by a team from MIT, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and Lund University in Sweden, are being reported in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Archeological Science. By scraping samples from inside two of the containers, called amphoras, the researchers were able to obtain DNA sequences that identified the contents of one...

Yesterday Rudy Giuliani announced part of his foreign policy team. Among the notable stars are Norman Podhoretz, Martin Kramer, Peter Berkowitz, former Senator Bob Kasten, Kim Holmes, and Harvard Professor Stephen Rosen. Perhaps most notable to me is ( Yale's Professor Charles Hill). Among other things, Professor Hill is a legendary diplomat and the former chief of staff of the State Department. He is the subject of Molly Worthen's The Man On Whom Nothing Was Lost: The Grand Strategy of Charles Hill. These are all stellar appointments. Their support of Giuliani is impressive. Over at (The American Thinker), Ed Lasky...

WASHINGTON, June 17, 2007 – The most successful team in Major Leagues Soccer’s 11-year history paid special tribute to America’s military men and women here last night. D.C. United hosted its 8th Annual Armed Forces Appreciation Day with several pre-game festivities at RFK Stadium. More than a thousand military personnel were invited to the game free of charge, and the team distributed military appreciation T-shirts to the first 5,000 fans. “It is a privilege and an honor for D.C. United to host members of the armed forces and their families each season,” Stephen Zack, D.C. United executive vice president,...

WASHINGTON, May 3, 2007 – Far below their accustomed bird’s-eye view of Afghanistan, about 240 U.S. airmen with boots on the ground there are working to build vital infrastructure as members of provincial reconstruction teams. Qalat Provincial Reconstruction team members talk with a local Afghan near the "Qalat to Mizan" road project, a 70-mile highway artery in southwestern Afghanistan. Air Force photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Twenty-four PRTs are stationed across Afghanistan, and in April 2006, the Air Force began leading six of the teams. Each is made up of about 90 members, including 40 active-duty airmen...